Saturday July 15, 2006

I've Been Thinking:

Israel has been pounding away at Lebanon.
So what are Israel's actual goals, what is Israel really fighting for?

Israel's most important goal is to destroy the infrastructure of Hezbollah.
If they succeed Israel will be handing back to Lebanon a society with a weakened
Hezbollah which is the only Hezbollah that the Lebanese will be able to control

Israel's secondary goal, after weakening Hezbollah, is look for and find captured Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
They are knocking out Lebanon's transportation routes in order to make certain that the soldiers are not moved to Syria and then to Iran.

Israel's priority order is inverted.
The main objective should be to get the soldiers. They should be sparing no expense in finding them. Over the past few years there has been a clear change and an erosion of the sacred sacrament of the Israeli Defense Forces, one that promised every Israeli soldier that their country would do everything, everything possible to get a soldier back.

This change in IDF principles of operation will have a huge impact on the future fighting force of Israel. Parents send their children to defend the country and they want at the least a body to bury, a grave to visit and an official day of mourning. A soldier needs to know that his country will move mountains to secure his return. Ron Arad was supposed to be the exception, not the rule.